Baillieu stolen tape exposes ructions

Mark Hawthorne and Richard Willingham

Bitter ructions in the Victoria Liberal Party have been thrust into the spotlight, distracting from Premier Denis Napthine’s efforts to seize control of the political agenda.

On Tuesday morning an email featuring a recording of a private conversation between former premier Ted Baillieu and a Sunday Age journalist was sent to Liberal Party members in Victoria.

The Liberal Party has now launched an investigation to discover who may have illegally accessed a computer database and emailed members - which was sent from an Elizabeth McRobert, who the Liberal Party says is not a member.

In the recording, Mr Baillieu is critical of parliamentary colleagues, including upper house MP Bernie Finn and rogue Frankston MP Geoff Shaw.

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Mr Baillieu speaks of Mr Finn and his “crazy mates" pushing Mr Shaw on several issues.

Following the suspension of Mr Shaw from Parliament earlier this month the Napthine government has moved to recapture the political agenda focusing on law and order and spruiking a series of new tough-on-crime laws.

But the email has again made public divisions within the state Liberal Party, forcing the Premier to field questions on the latest round of infighting.

"This is a sideshow. What we are on about is getting on with governing for Victoria," Dr Napthine.

He said all questions regarding the tape should be directed to Mr Baillieu.

Fairfax Media believes the private conversation was taken from the tape recorder of The Sunday Age’s state political editor Farrah Tomazin, which was stolen just after the state budget in May.

The Liberal Party does not yet know who - if anyone - accessed its database and sent the email.

“It is unclear who is responsible for the distribution of the material but we note that Fairfax Media is seeking legal advice over the matter and stolen recording devices,’’ state director Damian Mantach said.

Mr Mantach and a colleague were summoned to the Premier’s office just after 10am on Tuesday, where they met the Premier’s key advisers and were asked to explain how the email addresses were obtained.

The release of the tape has renewed calls from some within the Liberal Party for Mr Baillieu to retire from politics, which would free up the prized seat of Hawthorn for a fresh face.

Mr Baillieu did not wish to comment on Tuesday.

Party sources said the email was sent from a Gmail account and used an American-based email proxy service called Mail Chimp to avoid junk mail and spam filters.

“Everyone on our database has received the email, which is a concern,” said one party insider.

Editor-in-chief of The Age, Andrew Holden, said he was ‘‘appalled by the defamatory claims made in the email and rejects them totally’’.

‘‘Our reporters do not take part in the internal matters of political parties and we always respect confidentiality of information and sources,’’ Mr Holden said.

The email also alleges that the tape recording was released by The Age state political editor Josh Gordon last week, after a private conversation with a person in the Liberal Party.

“I strenuously deny the allegations,” Mr Gordon said.

“At no stage have I ever been privy to or had access to the private conversations of my friend and colleague Farrah Tomazin. I did not contact anyone last week to discuss internal party matters and I certainly did not email any private conversations to anyone in the Liberal Party," he said.

The Age has reported the theft to the police.

In a case of history repeating for the Liberal Party, the email also references the last major breach of the party’s computer policies back in 2008.

Two young Liberals working for the party started an anonymous blog called hewhostandsfornothing.blogspot.com, which was devoted to undermining Mr Baillieu when he was Victorian opposition leader.

The blog referred to Mr Baillieu as "Red Ted" and accused him of being too far “left” for a Liberal Party leader.

An investigation ordered by Mr Baillieu traced the blog to two staffers at Liberal Party headquarters in Melbourne, Simon Morgan and John Osborn. Both were sacked.

Tuesday’s explosive email cites the case saying “Mr Baillieu not only insisted that they were sacked, but that they be thrown out of the Liberal Party for disloyalty.”

The email called on party members to do the same to Mr Baillieu, and kick him out for breaching party rules.